DUSK:

Reflections on an expressive journey expressed through the vehicle of creativity.
December 2017



    DUSK, a site-specific yarn installation currently viewable through January 19, 2018 at Box 13, is meant to offer a physical form and spatial features to the varying color combinations and blends that can be seen as the sun falls just below the horizon. The installation is intended to offer a different perspective on how sunsets have the ability wash over any and everything that is exposed to it.

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    Four years ago I quit my job delivering pizzas because my manager didn’t believe that the time and effort I was exerting to better myself with an education was worth giving me time off to study for exams. I thought you myself, 'why should I waste my time in such a toxic environment?' Soon after, I transferred from HCC to University of Houston and applied for a student loan to help supplement the income I was hoping to make from photo and video gigs.

    While enrolling I found that my core specific credits would not be accepted. Nevertheless, I stuck around. It was not until I was forced to miss a high paying gig in order to study for an exam that I began to realize the problem I had presented myself with. In addition, during this time I was in real need of money, without it I would soon find myself homeless. Soon after missing that gig, I did find myself without a place to live.

    What followed was a period of sometimes sleeping on couches and others in my car. One evening I found a Facebook event page that my friend Jessie Noel created. It was an invitation to collaborate with her and other Houston-based artists. The home she was living in was in the process of being sold and soon would be scheduled for demolition. She refused to let it be destroyed without trying to activate the space.

    This was an extremely welcomed experience. I felt that if I could just occupy my mind and time with something other than being penniless and homeless, I could figure out my next move. I scrambled to think of something to create, something I could do to add to the conversation she were hoping to have with the Houston arts community. It was then that I decided to paint a 10-foot self-portrait in a cramped space; a commentary on just how helpless and lost I felt at the time.